EAST LANSING — Michigan State University officials project their official enrollment for the 2013-2014 school year will set a new record for the institution.

MSU expects to top 49,300 total students this academic year, according to preliminary figures the administration reported to the Board of Trustees Friday morning. That's up from last year's official enrollment of 48,906.

University officials say the enrollment data reflects MSU's continued popularity among college-bound high school graduates. Another indication: MSU received more than 31,000 admission applications for this school year.

MSU estimates its current freshman class is about 7,845 students, which is consistent with the university's planning for this year. The total entering class for 2013-2014—that includes transfers—is projected to be about 9,405, 74 percent of whom are from Michigan.

Enrollment data won't be final until after MSU's official count day on Sept. 23, which comes one-fourth of the way through the fall semester.

Other noteworthy preliminary statistics reported to the board Friday:

Total undergraduate enrollment is expected to be about 38,000, of which 79 percent are from Michigan.

Graduate students number about 8,800, and there are about 2,500 graduate professional students.

The average GPA of the current entering class is projected at 3.6 and the average ACT score is about 25.5.

About 1,505 students of the current undergraduate entering class are minorities.

The College of Social Science, the Broad College of Business and the College of Natural Science are projected to have the largest enrollments.